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Everything posted by Boomie

I've had a small colony that started out around 12-14 Blaberus Fusca nymphs, who i've had for around 3 months. I started getting random die off of nymphs at around 2 months or beginning of the third month. First it was mostly the nymphs, all around their final instar. They did not display any sort of system of fungi or insecticide problems. Or any sort of lethal mites. (Besides general grain mites) If I find them 'knocking on deaths door' they were unresponsive, lethargic and limp with some twitching. Sometimes I could keep one going a little longer with some sugary food but the end result was still death. I've lost two adults (one male, one female) and i've lost count of the nymphs. They were originally kept around 83 degrees at a general 60-70% humidity. I added a lid and weekly misting thinking maybe they needed more humidity. Their diet had small amounts of fruit such as bananas and Beardie fruit bites. (I work at a lizard farm where that sort of food is abundant.) They had started on a mostly ground dog food diet, then switched to chicken mash. I ended up giving them a sort of platter that was dog food, chicken mash and a protein mix to see if there was any adjustment in the dying or food preference. I then relocated them to my office that stays at 73-74 degrees around 40-45% humidity with a open lid. They have a substrate of coco coir and a egg carton folded in half for height. Do they experience random die off as the Blaberus Gigantus do or am I missing a key husbandry item? I haven't had this sort of problem with any of my other Blaberus species. I would be okay if they weren't necessarily producing, but the die off rate is killing me. Just looking for general ideas that could be a problem or mistakes I made in their husbandry. I have a tall, bark lined tank with greenery I was going to relocate them to (At the same office temp.) But now with only three adults and 3-4 nymphs I'm not sure if I will even have them much longer then a few months.

I've read in few places that suggest oak, beech, birch, maple, sycamore, magnolia, apple and cherry leaves with no problems. But, like Matttoadman said Oak is one of the easiest and sometimes seems that it is the most tastiest to them as well.

Pulled two dubia colonies. One made a day after the other. One put out the right amount and sizes of nymphs you would assume for two months of breeding. The second tub, put out maybe 2 weeks worth of 1/8 hatchlings, no other sizes, and extremely low numbers for two months. Dead females roaches appear to have some sort of pink (hot pink) fungus or mold around their heads and front legs. No males (dead or alive) appeared to be infected with the same thing. Diet had no change from what they normally eat. Any ideas? The whole colony is deemed to be put down at this moment encase of whatever this is spreading to my other colonies.

Who is actually smaller? I own both, but all my Hooded Schwarzi are nymphs at the moment. I originally ordered Lil Kenyans to try to sub out pin head crickets as feeders. The seller mailed me the Hooded Schwarzi as a little extra to test them out for feeders as well. Any know generally which would be better? Almost all the books and info I read say Lil' Kenyans are the smallest in the hobby but so far these the Schwarzi look to be way smaller.

Have you ever thought about testing these for their 'nutritional' content? I'm wondering if it's higher compared to the normal Dubia since they are more yellow/orange which adds up to a lot of great nutrients for other insect eating animals!